The Gardiner Museum is proud to announce the Museum and its gay summer exhibition, Camp Fires: The Queer Baroque of Léopold Foulem, Paul Mathieu and Richard Milette, will be a WorldPride Major Partner Event and on the lineup of cultural activities for the international gay and lesbian festival taking place June 20 – 29, 2014.

“We’re thrilled that the Gardiner Museum is an official cultural partner for WorldPride, and that our exhibition Camp Fires is on its roster of spectacular programming,” says Kelvin Browne, Gardiner Executive Director & CEO. “This provocative exhibition explores the concept of “camp” through the works of three important Francophone Canadian artists who have made gay male culture a central part of their artistic practice. Camp Fires was created with World Pride in mind, and we are excited to present our beautiful museum and the extraordinary world of clay to the international LGBT community.”

Curated by Robin Metcalfe, Camp Fires presents a survey of the artists’ powerful and engaging body of work spanning their careers, and will address three sub-themes essential to understanding their work: Subversive Historicism; Clay as Concept; and Queer Identity and Sexuality.

As part of WorldPride, the Gardiner Museum will act as an official cultural partner and destination. The Gardiner will also host a party during Pride Week on Friday June 27, as the launch for its Summer Plaza Parties, featuring musical guests, food and drink.

ABOUT THE GARDINER MUSEUM

The Gardiner Museum is Canada’s national ceramics museum and one of the world’s great specialty museums. Renowned for its extraordinary collections of European, Asian porcelain, Mesoamerican pottery, and contemporary ceramics, the Gardiner is a leading international centre for the exhibition, study and preservation of ceramic art. The Gardiner offers award-winning clay education programs taught by professional artists for all ages and skill levels. The Gardiner also has a bistro managed by à la Carte Kitchen and a shop acclaimed for its unique merchandise in ceramics, glass, jewellery and gifts for the home. In 2014 the Museum celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a series of public events and exhibitions.

Léopold Foulem ⎹ Born in Caraquet, New Brunswick in 1945, he received his M.F.A. from Indiana State University in 1988. He has received the Jean A. Chalmers National Crafts Award in 1999 and the Saidye Bronfman Award in 2001. He was the Bronfman’s first recipient from the Atlantic Provinces. In 2003, he received a prix Éloizes, the prestigious Acadian cultural award. His work has been seen in over 40 solo and over 230 group exhibitions. His work is in 24 public collections on three continents.

Foulem is a world authority on Picasso’s ceramic work, and has collected documentation on the subject over the past 25 years, with his research resulting in a number of publications. He is among the first Canadian ceramicists to have his work collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England, and by the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. His work combines playfulness and humour with an engagement of historic traditions, including classical Chinese, French and pre-Columbian ceramics. His work bridges the space between popular culture and high art in a single leap.

His mentorship of Paul Mathieu and Richard Milette, and of the late Jeannot Blackburn, has created a legacy beyond his own substantial body of work.

Paul Mathieu⎹ Born in 1954, Paul Mathieu received an M.F.A. from University of California at Los Angeles in 1987 and teaches at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. He has received many awards including the Grand Prix des Metiers d'Art in 1985, the Chalmers Award in Crafts in 2000, the Sadye Bronfman Award for Excellence in Crafts, and the Governor General Award in Visual Arts in 2007. He is the author of Sexpots: Eroticism in Ceramics, published by A&C Black in England. It features erotic ceramics from the Neolithic period to today with an emphasis on the work of more than 100 international contemporary artists. He also edited the book The Art of the Future: 14 essays on Ceramics.

Mathieu has been artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre, the Tama Art Studios in Machida, Japan and the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary. He has made four separate stays at the San Bao International Ceramics Studio in Jingdezhen, China to research and realize new works.

His work is in numerous public collections including Musée du Québec, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts both in Montreal, and the Gardiner Museum for Ceramic Art; Shigaraki in Japan; the Victoria & Albert Museum in England, and the L.A. County Art Museum in California.

Richard Milette⎹ Born in Montreal in 1960, Richard Milette has work in public collections in Canada and the United States including the Canada Council Art Bank, Burlington Cultural Centre, Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, the Gardiner Museum, the Musée du Québec, and the Royal Ontario Museum; the Allan Chasanoff Collection (North Carolina), the Racine Art Museum (Wisconsin), and the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art (Alfred New York). His work has been seen in exhibitions in Montreal, Quebec City, London (Ontario), Toronto, Philadelphia, Scottsdale, and New York.

Milette juggles different eras and genres from the history of ceramics, undermining the utility of conventional forms.

ABOUT WORLDPRIDE 2014 TORONTO AND PRIDE TORONTO

WorldPride 2014 Toronto is an international celebration taking place from June 20 – 29, 2014 that incorporates activism, education, and the history and culture of global LGBTTIQQ2SA* communities. WorldPride 2014 Toronto is presented by Pride Toronto, producer of Canada’s largest annual festival of LGBTTIQQ2SA* culture and human rights, under license from InterPride.

Pride Toronto is the not-for-profit organization that hosts the city’s Pride Festival, an annual event in downtown Toronto during the last week of June and one of the premier arts and cultural festivals in Canada. It is also one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world with an estimated attendance of over one million people. It celebrates the history, courage, diversity and future of Toronto's LGBTTIQQ2SA* communities.

*LGBTTIQQ2SA is an abbreviation used to represent a broad array of identities such as, but not limited to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning, two-spirited, and allies.